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Guide:Ranger
The Ranger is a long range class commonly used in utility roles which incorporate tactics such as ganking, interrupting, snaring, and condition spreading. They are also often used in gimmicks which take advantage of their superior range (such as ranger spikes) or their primary attribute Expertise (such as Thumpers or Touch Rangers). Ranger armor has a maximum armor rating of 70, provides 1 extra pip of energy regeneration, and grants an armor rating bonus of 30 against elemental damage. Primary Weapon The Ranger's primary weapons are the Shortbow, Longbow, Recurve Bow, Hornbow, and Flatbow. They are two-handed weapons linked to the Marksmanship attribute and deal 15-28 piercing damage maximum. The different bows vary in range, attack speed, arc size, and armor penetration bonus. Bows will deal more damage when the attacker is on a higher elevation than his target, but will deal less damage when the attacker is on a lower elevation than his target. The larger the arc size, the easier it is for attacks from that bow to be dodged. A longer flight time also means it's much more difficult to interrupt skills since the interruption doesn't occur until the attack hits its target. Primary Attribute: Expertise :"For each rank of Expertise, the Energy cost of all of your attacks, Rituals, touch skills, and Rangers skills are decreased by 4%." The primary attribute of Rangers lowers the energy cost of all Ranger skills and the energy costs of attack skills, touch skills, and rituals from any secondary profession. This attribute is often exploited by such builds as the RaO Thumper (reducing the cost of the otherwise expensive Rampage as One) or the Touch Ranger (which spams Necromancer touch skills that steal health). The following table shows how the energy cost of skills is affected with increasing levels of Expertise. The highlighted cells show the breakpoints. Attributes Wilderness Survival :"Longer healing rates for selective skills. Many Ranger skills, especially Rituals, Preparations and Traps, become more effective with higher Wilderness Survival." Wilderness Survival contains most of the Ranger's preparation skills. It also contains many of their Traps, Nature Rituals, and self defense skills. Marksmanship :"Increases the damage and chance to inflict a critical hit with bows." Marksmanship is an essential investment for Rangers that use bows. The vast majority of the skills in the Marksmanship attribute are bow attacks, but it does have a few preparation skills and one nature ritual. Beast Mastery :"Increases the damage and chance to inflict a critical hit by an animal companion." Beast Mastery is an attribute based almost entirely around the Ranger using a pet. The attribute is largely unfavored due to the fact that a living pet is needed to use most of the skills. This means bringing Comfort Animal (and in PvP, Charm Animal). Furthermore, the mechanics of pet attacks make them very difficult to time properly compared to normal skills. This attribute mainly contains pet attacks, pet-oriented buffs, and nature rituals. Common Ranger Builds PvP * The classic R/Mo bar consists of Savage Shot, Distracting Shot, Apply Poison or Barbed Arrows, Natural Stride, Mending Touch, and then an appropriate elite such as Burning Arrow, Magebane Shot, Incendiary Arrows, Crippling Shot or Melandru's Shot. * Bunny Thumpers and their axe variant are popular for their ability to shut down Monks and other casters through daze or multiple interrupts, while pressuring with constant 33% IAS/25% IMS. * Touch Rangers were popular for their survivability and ease of use but have become far less common. This build uses the energy reduction from Expertise to spam Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Bite for life stealing damage and self-healing. Defensive skills such as Plague Touch, Whirling Defense, and Throw Dirt make Touch Rangers difficult to kill with melee and the extra armor against Elemental damage makes them resistant to casters as well. PvE * The Barrage Ranger has been one of the most popular PvE Ranger builds for many years. Favored for its versatility and ability to attack multiple targets at once. Commonly used with Splinter Weapon which triggers on every arrow of Barrage dealing massive area damage or to charge "Save Yourselves!" and other adrenaline skills quickly as every arrow gives a separate strike of adrenaline. * Incendiary Arrows Rangers provide AoE damage in a manner similar to Barrage rangers, but can use preparations (most commonly Ignite Arrows) to deal extra AoE damage and have a nearby (as opposed to adjacent) range. However, Incendiary Arrows has a much longer recharge than Barrage. * BHA Rangers are very popular since factions for their ability to shut down (often dangerous) caster classes. These Rangers often combine BHA with Epidemic and Volley to completely shut down entire caster mobs. * Rangers who wish to provide AoE damage but use a different elite can use Volley. Some builds using this concept are BHA Epidemic Rangers and EDA Volley Rangers. * Scythe rangers make good frontliners in PvE able to deal high damage and hold aggro fairly well thanks to blocking stances like Escape or Lightning Reflexes and natural resistance to Elemental damage. Escape will often be substituted for Wounding Strike or Reaper's Sweep as Escape's IMS isn't usually needed in PvE.